The Best Time to Rent? NOW!

Recent research said that the would-be buyers turned to rentals for more affordability and reduced risk, with agencies growing their rental books and, in some cases, doubling their rental books over the last three years. This is also the case in the high-end luxury sector of the market.

Although there is demand in the R20,000 to R35,000 per month price band, there is a large amount of activity in the R40,000 to R60,000 band, with high-end rentals still reaching R80,000 to R100,000. The R10,000 to R15,000 per month range is still the most active.

That said, Payprop's data showed that the best growth rates for rentals were found in some of the country's less wealthy, inland provinces, such as North West (9.3%), Mpumalanga (6.3%), and Northern Cape (6.2%).  The wealthiest provinces, Gauteng (4.7%), Western Cape (4.3%), and KZN (2.5%), also had big growth.

Western Cape does, however, remain the most expensive province, with an average rental rate of R9,946 per month.

The improved rental market has also buoyed the buy-to-let market, with investment property sales rising to their highest level since late 2009, data from Ooba showed.

The strongest area for investment and buy-to-let is the Western Cape at 28.5%, followed by Mpumalanga (10%), Free State (9.6%), Limpopo (9.2%) and Eastern Cape (8.1%).